AD / An Ode To Cleaning

Back in 2008, visitors to my flat would always laugh at the contents of my fridge: it contained only bottles… Of water and nail polish. I hadn’t yet mastered the eight dishes that now comprise my staple diet and basically relied on nearby restaurants and the kindness of friends to keep me from starvation. After poking fun at me for the odd contents of my fridge, their eyes would then pan across the immaculate kitchen to my huge collection of cleaning materials. More laughter would ensue, along with a litany of questions as to why on earth I’d need so much cleaning stuff when I didn’t cook.

It’s a fair question, and one I am still answering – though I now cook regularly, my kitchen is still unduly rammed with cleaning products designed to do everything from the usual (kill germs, make things gleam), to the slightly more niche (silverware cleaner, kettle descaler, jewellery polishing ointment). I am, to put it mildly, a bit into cleaning. And I like things to shine. So there.

That said, I’ve grown an aversion to the toxic, noxious potions that I used to scrub my house with – not least because they made my skin sore, my throat itch and the increasingly eco-conscious side of me feel a little guilty. As I lived on Westbourne Grove, finding alternatives was pretty easy and I quickly decided that method was one of my preferred brands; it looked good on my kitchen counter, smelled fresh without any fizzy chemical notes, and – most importantly – made things clean. I also quite liked that they did the odd jazzy bottle to shake things up a bit (my pleasures, they’re simple).

This brings me neatly to the sponsored bit of this post:method’s newest collaboration with Rebecca Atwood. Haven’t heard of her? I hadn’t either, but a 20-minute browse of her home textiles range later, and I’m a huge fan. This lace wallpaper in particular got me a bit excited. She’s designed three limited edition bottles which to me call sunshine and citrus fruits to mind, and method have tailored the contents of the Sunshine Bloom range accordingly – each of the three cleaning products smell like peaches and flowers and contain mandarin, freesia, osmanthus flower and orris. Buy them now if you’d like to carry a little sunshine into your winter. Now do please excuse me, I’ve got a kitchen counter to polish…

The method collaboration with Rebecca Atwood hand wash, multi-surface spray and washing up liquid are available now, exclusively from John Lewis and Waitrose.

There are few things better in life than a spotlessly clean, fresh-smelling home. I’m addicted to method woodpolish-it smells like almonds – and I use far more of it than I probably should. Well done Maddie!